Yesterday, Facebook’s Dave Recordon commented that he just finished a marathon session of The West Wing, a great show about the inner-workings of a fictional White House that ended its run on NBC in 2006. I agreed with Recordon, it was a great show. You know who else agreed? Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
So why is this interesting? Well, the creator of The West Wing was Aaron Sorkin. He was also the executive producer and primary writer through the first four seasons. If you’ve heard Sorkin’s name in the tech sphere recently, it’s because he’s also the writer of the new Facebook movie, The Social Network, currently filming under the direction of David Fincher.
On his Facebook Wall, Recordon wrote, “Just finished watching all seven seasons of The West Wing for the first time. Sad that there isn’t more!” To which Zuckerberg replied, “I had the same feeling. It’s such an amazing show.”
So Zuckerberg is clearly a fan of Sorkin’s work pre-The Social Network. But will he be a fan of the movie? That still seems unlikely given that it’s based on the Ben Mezrich book, “The Accidental Billionaires”, which paints Zuckerberg and his early Facebook team in a less-than-favorable light.
Still, with a Sorkin script and Fincher directing, there’s no doubt there is some great creative talent behind the project. On-screen, Zuckerberg will be played by Jesse Einsenberg (maybe best known for Zombieland and Adventureland, but better in The Squid and the Whale). Meanwhile, early Facebook President, Sean Parker, will be played by Justin Timerblake — something which interrupted a tech party Timberlake was to be at a few months ago in San Francisco.
Ah, the ever-tangling web of Hollywood and Silicon Valley.